Colorado coaches are reluctant, of course, to call Saturday’s game at Texas A&M “a must-win.”

But I will.

With the Buffaloes struggling on offense, I think it will be difficult for them to beat Oklahoma State and Nebraska, even though the Nov. 15 game against the Cowboys is in Boulder.

Colorado (4-4, 1-3 Big 12) needs two victories to become bowl-eligible. And on paper, Saturday’s game in College Station and the Nov. 8 home game against Iowa State look like the easiest road.

Then again, what do I know? Four days before true freshman quarterback Tyler Hansen discarded his redshirt and played against Kansas State, I wrote in a blog that CU coaches likely would “stay the course” and not make any significant changes.

Like the other beat reporters covering CU, I had seen Hansen taking snaps in practice with the No. 1 offense. But I thought that was to give the No. 1 defense an idea of what to expect from K-State quarterback Josh Freeman, who, like Hansen, has good wheels when he breaks containment.

I’m still surprised that Hawkins burned a freshman’s redshirt year seven games into the season. But after watching Hansen scramble and seeing him thread a 21-yard touchdown pass to Scotty McKnight in the left corner of the end zone against Kansas State, I’m convinced now that it was a good move.

CU coach Dan Hawkins continues to say that he hates using two quarterbacks. I suspect that could continue for the remainder of the season. But Hawkins will want to pick one QB in spring drills. Considering that Hansen got the start in his second game, against Missouri, it will be a surprise if he is not the odds-on favorite to win the job.

In addition to Cody Hawkins and Matt Ballenger, another quarterback in the mix this spring could be incoming freshman Jordan Wynn from Oceanside (Calif.) High. Wynn, who orally committed to CU in June, told Rivals.com that he plans to graduate early and enroll at CU in January.

Wynn is being listed at 6-2 and 185 pounds on Internet recruiting sites. If that’s accurate, he needs a year in the weight room.

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Redshirt-freshman Eugene Goree seems to be enjoying himself with work at offensive guard. But the 6-1, 295-pound Tennessean believes his future is back at defensive tackle.

Next season, Colorado must replace three seniors on the defensive line: end Maurice Lucas and tackles George Hypolite and Brandon Nicolas. Meanwhile, guards Ryan Miller (fractured fibula) and Mike Iltis (ACL) will be back from injuries and other young offensive linemen will be a year older and wiser.

In any case, you’d have to think that learning techniques on the offensive side of the ball will help Goree continue to develop as a defensive lineman.

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The Post’s Broncos writer, Mike Klis, couldn’t get to Broncos defensive lineman Kenny Peterson in time to contribute to my story on Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman, that ran today.

But here’s what Peterson said later about his former Green Bay Packers coach: “He was a good guy. Coach Sherman has kids of his own in college, so he understands what his players (at Texas A&M) are going through. There’s always bumps and bruises, growing pains. But coach Sherman will get those guys in line and get them going.”

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With the 58-0 loss to Missouri, the Buffs finished the grueling “six pack” stretch of their schedule with two victories. CU defeated West Virginia and Kansas State, and lost to Florida State, Texas, Kansas and Missouri.

“War as they knew it: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a time of unrest” by Michael Rosenberg (Grand Central Publishing, $26.99) provides an insightful account into perhaps college football’s greatest coaching rivalry.

Rosenberg, sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, does a masterful job of reporting. He takes the reader behind the scenes with anecdotes that you won’t find anyplace else. Who could have guess that Woody Hayes taught an English grammar course at Ohio State and was one of the last remaining coaches to be a tenured professor?

“Bill Self: At home in the Phog” with John Rohde (Ascend Media Books, $24.95) is the other. On the heels of Kansas basketball’s 2008 national championship, Self and Rohde have collaborated on a quick-read biography/autobiography that begins with Self’s upbringing in a sports-connected family – his father, Bill Sr., was an administrator with the Oklahoma high school activities association, rising to the level of executive director.

What I found most engrossing were passages that revealed what Self went through during job changes and the heart-felt pain and second-guessing that Bill and his family felt each time – leaving Oral Roberts for Tulsa, Tulsa for Illinois and Illinois for Kansas. Interesting, behind-the-scenes stuff.

Full disclosure: I covered Self when he was a player at Oklahoma State in the early 1980s, and later when he served as an assistant in Stillwater under Leonard Hamilton. I am also a friend of Rohde, who was a colleague when I worked at Oklahoma City’s Daily Oklahoman newspaper prior to joining The Denver Post in 1989.

I enjoy having authors sign my copy of their books, and Self’s accompanying note immediately became my all-time favorite:

“Tom,
You know the real stories” – Bill Self.

I thoroughly enjoyed both books and strongly recommend them.

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When my ship comes in, I know one place I want to dock it for a purchase or two.

While in Oklahoma City recently for the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball media days, I dropped in on David Fisk, another former colleague at the Daily Oklahoman.

Fisk retired from the newspaper business last year and became a small-business owner. Images Gallery: The Art of Sport (1389 E. 15th St., Suite 124, Edmond, OK, 73013) has one of the finest collections of sports art to be found anywhere.

You won’t see jerseys or baseballs or ball caps at his gallery. But you will find original art and affordable prints from some of the nation’s most popular and talented sports artists and photographers. Fisk has several pieces from Denver-based artist Malcolm Farley.